File transfer method and system

Abstract

A file transfer method for transmitting a large data file in slices from a sender to a receiver through the Internet on multiple parallel FTP connections uses the restart (REST) command of the industry-standard FTP Protocol to command an FTP server to transfer the respective slices starting with the first byte corresponding to that slice. This method can obtain the same high speed download performance of multiple simultaneous FTP connections without requiring any special software to be installed at the sender end. The “restart” file transfer method can be employed in a batch-processing system for performing file transfers from multiple FTP servers through the Internet in which each file transfer involves multiple parallel FTP connections. The batch-processing system has designated Receiver Machines for handling file transfers from any FTP server using multiple parallel FTP connections, an Autopoller Server for monitoring the status of file transfers from any FTP server to the Receiver Machines, and an Admin Program connected to the Autopoller Server providing a graphical user interface for an operator for administration of the system.

Description

[0001] This invention generally relates to Internet file transfer using the File Transfer Protocol (FTP) for downloads of large files through the Internet, and, more particularly, to an improved method for obtaining very high speeds for large file transfers using multiple parallel download connections, and to a system for batch processing and administration of such large file transfers. BACKGROUND OF INVENTION [0002] As shown in FIG. 1, file transfers over the Internet are commonly accomplished by a sender program of one user sending data from an original file over a connection to a receiver program of another user, with the result that the receiver has a copy of the original file. For downloading a file using the File Transfer Protocol (FTP) of the TCP / IP Protocol commonly used on the Internet, as shown in FIG. 2, the sender program is a standard FTP server, the connection is an FTP connection, and the receiver program is a standard FTP client program. The process is initiated by t...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0007] It is therefore a principal object of the present invention to overcome the disadvantages of the prior art by providing a file transfer method for large data files that achieves very high transfer speeds by using multiple simultaneous FTP connections but does not require nonstandard proprietary control programs to be present at both the sending and receiving ends of every transmission.

[0012] This file transfer method can obtain the same high speed download performance using multiple simultaneous FTP connections as in the prior art, but offers the important additional advantage that no special software is required at the sender end. The file transfer method can be used for downloads to the receiver by configuring the Control Program to control the intermediary receiving processes upon the initiation of a request from the receiver. The intermediary receiving processes can be any computing resources available to the Control Program, such as an array of dedicated computers, or a network or grid of enlisted computers.

Problems solved by technology

The main disadvantage is that special control programs must be installed on the computers at both ends, which requires widespread adoption of the control programs as a standard tool in order for large files to be exchanged among many different users on the Internet.

With the Fabozzi method, it is possible that some packets will finish uploading early, reducing the advantage of simultaneous FTP transmissions.

Once again, the Saito method has the disadvantage that special control programs must be installed on both ends.

However, the disadvantage is that nonstandard proprietary programs must be present at both ends.

Once again, the disadvantage of this approach is that nonstandard proprietary programs must be present at both ends.

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